Location
by Blackjack Gabbiani
Summary: Left behind in Veilstone, Saturn can only wait for Cyrus to enact his plan to unmake everything.


/I gave explicit instructions that the trainer was to leave here unharmed./

/S-sir! That trainer defeated you! It could not go unpunished!/

/Enough! If you are so inflamed with your passions that you cannot follow orders, then you must be punished with the utmost severity./

Saturn had been staring out the window for the past several hours, and the grunts were starting to worry. They hung back out of concern and apprehension; it wasn't like him to be so still.

After watching him, never taking her eyes off him for a good twenty minutes, an agent approached him. Gently putting a hand to his arm, both of which were folded behind his back in an unconscious mirror of their leader, she smiled at him. "Commander...?"

He seemed not to notice, for acknowledgement came after nearly a full minute, during which time she never looked away and never broke her smile. "...Mt. Coronet is a sight to behold," he said under his breath.

"Yes sir. And right now, our leader should--"

"He should be ascending. And none of us will behold it."

She let her hand fall to her side. All of them had wanted to be chosen to go up to the Spear Pillar and see Cyrus restrain the deities of time and space, and when he took only the other two Commanders and a handful of very selected grunts, a dim haze fell over the rest of the agents. Remembering a halfheartedly cheerful statement another grunt had said earlier, she told him "we'll get to see them, sir. He'll bring them back here and we'll study them, so it's not like we're being completely left out."

Saturn's mouth opened slightly, lips parting to exhale in a sharp second. "His new world will begin from mt. coronet. We will not see it."

"Sir..." Was that grief in his eyes? "We're all going to do our part to make sure his plan goes smoothly. and once people recognize us as their new rulers, we're all going to be involved in the rebirth of the planet. There's a lot of work to be done yet, sir."

A shudder ran through his slender frame, and finally he turned to look at her. "Your faith is commendable...the same with everyone here." His lower lip quivered as he turned back to the rest. "All of you...come closer."

They obeyed, looking at each other and at him quizzically.

The sight of them, so obedient and eager for the future; a future that consisted of possibly a few more hours before the world ceased to exist and all of them with it, brought tears to his eyes. Briefly he wondered if any of them would recognize what was happening. "Our leader wishes to...bring about a new world. To do so, he must..." Saturn's heart nearly sank at the sight of them. They were all unworthy, every last one of them, or they'd be on the Spear Pillar right then. But to tell them the truth of their unexistence would bring agony to their final moments. "He must know that we all support him. That we would do anything for him. That we would give all that we are for him."

There was a jolt, then a rumble, then the building shook. A pipe burst from the ceiling tiles, and a window down the hall shattered. The grunts cried out almost simultaneously, together even in fear. Saturn braced himself although the movement had settled, and was about to continue speaking when one of them screamed "Sir! The sky!"

It was their reactions that first chilled him, eyes welling with tears of fright and knuckles clenched tight on each others' uniforms as they clung to each other. He turned, and was nearly overcome.

The sky was dark, not from a storm, but the blackest pitch of space, and overcome with dashes of red, of blue, of green. This had to be the end of all things. There was nothing else it could be.

Had he not grabbed the wall, Saturn would have fallen to the floor in gaping awe; as it was he could only find his bearing with his face against the window, looking up at the mountain and trembling. "S...sir...! You've done it!" he shouted, the only words he could manage though his shock.

This was the end. They would all perish at the might of their lord, soon to be the lord of all.

And yet Saturn smiled. It was his fate to perish, the last gasp of the old world. A sacrifice, a blessing to what had come before. Shaking away streaming tears of joy, he turned back to the agents and raised his arm. "He needs us, in these last moments of the present world. Abandon yourselves and follow me."

In confusion, they trailed behind him to the courtyard. Never looking back, Saturn knelt to pray as the sky fell apart above them.


End file.
